September 1, 2015 Volume 62 Issue 3

Five early-career researchers from three schools at the University of Pennsylvania have received funding from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) for their excellence in biomedical research, in topics including heart disease, sleep and infectious diseases, as part of a nationwide program totaling $22.5 million.

“The Fund awards excellence at an individual level, and provides an opportunity for scientists to leverage our support into long and fruitful careers,” said BWF President, John E. Burris.

Ann M Hermundstad, a postdoctoral researcher in physics & astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences, will receive $500,000 over five years as part of the Career Awards at the Scientific Interface, which are intended to foster the early career development of researchers in the physical/mathematical/computational sciences or engineering. Dr. Hermundstad studies how neurons coordinate with one another to support collective functionality, such as the ability to track a moving object or distinguish different smells. By studying this interplay, she hopes to gain insight into why the brain is organized as it is and how this organization enables organisms to function in a complex and dynamic world.

Two Penn investigators will each receive Career Awards for Medical Scientists, which provide $700,000 over five years to facilitate the transition of the academic physician-scientist from a mentored position to a tenure-track faculty appointment. Recipients of these awards are:

Rajan Jain, an instructor in the department of medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, studies the mechanisms of genome organization and how that influences cardiac cell development and maturation, to ultimately better understand heart disease. Specifically, Dr. Jain studies the protein network that surrounds the nucleus and how that is emerging as an important scaffold to organize large pieces of DNA that affects gene expression.

Matthew Stern Kayser, an assistant professor of psychiatry and neuroscience in the Perelman School of Medicine, studies the mechanisms by which sleep, a critical and highly conserved biological process, controls brain development. He aims to examine whether abnormal sleep early in life increases susceptibility to neurodevelopmental disorders and how sleep itself might be harnessed as a novel therapeutic modality.

Two Penn investigators will each receive the Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award, which provides $500,000 over five years to support accomplished investigators at the assistant professor level to study pathogenesis, with a focus on the interplay between human and microbial biology. Recipients of these awards are:

Igor E. Brodsky, an assistant professor of pathobiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine, will focus on the activity of an enzyme called caspase-8, which plays a key role in how the immune system defends against invading microbes. Dr. Brodsky’s research could help identify therapeutic targets to either boost or tone down the immune system’s response to infection or inflammation.

Rahul Manu Kohli, an assistant professor of medicine, infectious disease division, in the Perelman School of Medicine, studies new approaches to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. There is some evidence that when bacteria experience stress they can mutate at higher rates, which would facilitate their escape from antibiotics. Dr. Kohli plans to evaluate this possibility by generating bacteria strains to directly tune stress responses and ask how evolutionary dynamics are altered when the bacteria are challenged with antibiotics.

Charles Bernstein, Donald T. Regan Professor  of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, is a winner of the 2015 Janus Pannonius Grand Prize for Poetry along with Giuseppe Conte of Italy.

Founded in 2012 by the Hungarian PEN Club, the award is modeled after the Nobel Prize for Literature, and is named after the first known and celebrated Hungarian poet. The award honors poets considered heirs to human spirituality and culture.

Mr. Bernstein and Mr. Conte were presented with their prize late last month in Italy and Hungary. Their joint bilingual volume, Tutto il whiskey in cielo/Tutto il meraviglioso in terra (All the Whiskey in Heaven/All the Wonder of the World) was presented at that time. On August 29, an award ceremony was held in Pécs, Hungary, the birthplace of Pannonius. The event was in the courtyard of the Episcopal Palace.

The prize comes with 50,000meuros, or $56,405, which is to be split between the two winners.
This is the second major international poetry prize for Professor Bernstein in 2015. He also won the Münster International Poetry Prize.

No Classes: Friday, September 25

Due to anticipated logistical and transportation issues related to the historic visit of Pope Francis to Philadelphia, Penn will suspend normal operations. Classes and University-sponsored events are cancelled.

Deadline to Drop Classes Extended: Friday, October 9

The drop deadline for fall semester classes has been extended to Friday, October 9. Due to the combined effects of the Jewish holidays and the Papal Visit, instructors may not be able to schedule and return work early enough in the semester to allow students to make an informed decision about continuing in a class in time for the existing earlier drop deadline. Please note that although the new deadline occurs during Fall Break, Penn InTouch will be available to process drop requests.

See the modified Three-Year Academic Calendar on the back page.

The Deans of the health schools of the University of Pennsylvania (Perelman School of Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Dental Medicine and School of Veterinary Medicine) announce an Award for Excellence in promoting One Health initiatives and education.

The One Health concept is a worldwide strategy to expand interdisciplinary collaboration and communication in all aspects of healthcare. Interdisciplinary One Health efforts arose with the goal of sharing knowledge of healthcare and preventive measures to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. Government, professional and academic institutions around the world have committed to promoting these important One Health efforts to improve global health. For more information about One Health, visit www.vet.upenn.edu/one-health

The four-school One Health Committee invites nominations for candidates who are full-time staff or faculty members engaged in professional education that bridges two or more of the schools with outreach/innovation in training and service in clinics or to the community. Collaborative research focused on healthcare education, clinical outcomes or real-world impact will receive more favorable consideration than strictly laboratory collaborations. The winner(s) will be awarded the prize (including a $500 cash award) at a reception in October, with all four Deans in attendance. 

Examples: 

•      Developing a multi-school clinical service/teaching program,

•      Providing training in communications/outreach to more than one school’s professional students and or interns/residents,

•      Including more than one school’s students in a clinical experience,

•      Building bridges between healthcare specialties in animals and humans,

•      Creating multidisciplinary programs that improve healthcare or prevent famine or disease outbreaks,

•      Developing a research program or project that crosses schools to increase the impact of a promising line of discovery.

To nominate a staff or faculty member from the Penn Community, please send a letter of recommendation that describes the candidate’s contributions to One Health, Cerie O’Toole at cerieo@vet.upenn.edu by Wednesday, September 30, 2015.

I hope that all of you enjoyed a wonderful summer and are looking forward to the year ahead. As our richly diverse community of scholars reassembles on campus for the new academic year, this is a fitting time to reaffirm our shared commitment to freedom of thought, inquiry and expression. 

This fall marks the first semester of our Campaign for Community, the campus-wide initiative that launched in the spring. Through a range of events, the Campaign will aim to help us discuss and confront issues that are often avoided because they may seem “controversial” or intractable.  

One of the most vital ways for faculty and staff to promote this freedom to hear, express and debate various views is to serve as an Open Expression Monitor. Monitors attend meetings or demonstrations to ensure that Penn’s robust Guidelines on Open Expression are followed, supporting the principles of open expression at the heart of our identity as a community of diverse viewpoints. 

As the Campaign for Community begins, I encourage all Penn faculty and staff members to consider serving as an Open Expression Monitor. Please contact Katie Hanlon Bonner by September 10 at hanlonkj@exchange.upenn.edu if you are interested. 

We welcome the active participation of all students, faculty and staff in the Campaign as it moves forward. You can address your thoughts and suggestions at any time to the Campaign Steering Committee at c4c@exchange.upenn.edu

—Vincent Price, Provost

The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club, Penn’s oldest student performing arts group and treasured University tradition lasting 153 years, welcomes its new director, Joshua Glassman.

Following the resignation of Erik Nordgren, who served as Glee Club Director for 15 years, Platt Student Performing Arts House and the Penn Glee Club announced Mr. Glassman as the newest addition to their staff. Mr. Glassman will assume his responsibilities as Glee Club Director effective fall 2015, including but not limited to campus and community engagement, artistic leadership, performance preparation and conducting.

Mr. Glassman comes to the Glee Club with a master of music from Peabody Conservatory (2015), bachelor of music with teacher certification from the University of Michigan (2012) and eight years’ teaching and conducting experience. Most recently, he held the position of director of choirs for Point Counterpoint Summer Camp in Leicester, Vermont.

“Platt House staff collaborated with Glee Club student and alumni leadership for this national search. I was very impressed with the sincerity and dedication of Glee Club members—current and graduated—as they balanced the responsibilities of such a high-profile hiring process with their school work, extracurricular responsibilities, work, family needs and so on,” shared Platt House Director Laurie McCall. “This collaboration revealed a wealth of passion and thoughtfulness that resulted in the selection of an accomplished and well-suited Glee Club Director. We have very high expectations for Josh and the Glee Club under his leadership.”

“The Penn Glee Club is excited to usher in a new era under the direction of Mr. Josh Glassman. His passion for all-male choral singing, as well as his reverence for the Club’s traditions, promise to make his tenure a special one,” said Glee Club President Daniel Carsello, C’16.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is delighted to announce a leadership gift from Barry R. Lipman, W’70 to enhance the Lipman Family Prize, an annual global prize that celebrates leadership and innovation among organizations creating positive social impact. Mr. Lipman’s gift will raise the award amounts for the esteemed Lipman Prize from $125,000 to $250,000 for first place recipients and from $12,500 to $25,000 to each of the second and third place recipients, providing even more generous support to the grateful recipients.

“Barry and Marie’s generosity has an incredible impact, not only on students here at Wharton but on the entire world,” said Wharton Dean Geoff Garrett. “By establishing this fund and continuing to expand upon it in amazing ways, they are providing life-changing support to recipients and to the communities that they serve through their innovative projects. We are extremely grateful for their generosity.”

This marks a second supplemental gift from Mr. Lipman since he originally established the fund with his wife, Marie, in 2011 (Almanac February 1, 2011). In 2013, Mr. Lipman made an additional gift to the prize, increasing the award for winning organizations from $100,000 to $125,000 and providing an award of $12,500 to finalists. 

“Our objectives in creating and enlarging this prize are threefold. First, to assist organizations to improve their operations and impact through a competitive process, which leads to collaboration with Penn and Wharton. Second, to encourage students to join the social impact sector. Lastly, to facilitate the transfer of successful elements of the finalist organizations’ models and practices across geography and need,” said Mr. Lipman. “After witnessing the success and impact of past recipients, it is our pleasure to grow the resources and opportunities. We have enjoyed being a part of this prize and look forward to many future positive experiences.”

The Lipman Family Prize has received applications from hundreds of organizations dedicated to a range of global causes including economic development, education, environmental sustainability, human rights, disaster preparedness and poverty alleviation since it was first established. Finalists are selected through a rigorous evaluation conducted by a committee of faculty, students and staff from across the University. In spring 2015, the Wharton School announced the recipient of the fourth annual Lipman Family Prize: Riders for Health, an international social enterprise bringing public health care services to rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The 2015 finalists included CareMessage, a social enterprise that provides mobile technologies to improve health literacy and self-health management, and Innovation: Africa, an organization bringing Israeli innovation to African villages through infrastructure projects. The 2016 winner and finalists will be announced in early 2016.

Mr. Lipman is a co-founder of Goldfarb & Lipman—now Goldfarb Lipman—a leading California law firm. He graduated from Wharton’s undergraduate program in 1970.

The Lipman Family Prize at Penn is an annual global prize that celebrates leadership and innovation among organizations creating positive social impact. Governed by a steering committee comprised of Penn faculty, staff and Lipman family representatives, the Prize is administered by Wharton on behalf of the University.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation recently awarded the University of Pennsylvania a $2 million grant to support University initiatives in the digital humanities in both Penn Arts & Sciences and Penn Libraries.

“The Mellon Foundation’s generous philanthropy will serve to strengthen Penn’s abiding commitment to the most creative scholarship and teaching in the humanities,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “We are grateful for the Foundation’s partnership as we launch key initiatives to advance the use of technology along with innovative analyses of the most important big data in the study of the humanities.”

“Digital humanities” is an umbrella term for the proliferation of digital and computational technologies that are being applied to scholarship across higher education and transforming the way humanists work. The digital humanities encompass tools ranging from computers that read massive amounts of digitized writing to facilitate the analysis of texts and detect previously invisible patterns, to geographic information systems (GIS) that present complex histories in the form of interactive maps, to 3-D modeling technologies that can produce immersive re-creations of archaeological sites and artifacts.

Penn’s Humanities in the Digital Age Initiative builds upon projects that have been underway in Penn Arts & Sciences, the Libraries and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The initiative seeks to consolidate the University’s existing digital resources and significantly expand them in order to profoundly strengthen humanities teaching and research.

The Mellon Foundation grant will help fund special training for faculty and students in the latest digital tools and methods, and enable collaborative, experimental faculty-student research and classroom projects. As a result, Penn will be better positioned to fully utilize the new Price Lab for the Digital Humanities, which was made possible by a $7 million gift from Penn Arts & Sciences Overseer Michael J. Price, W’79, and his wife, Vikki (Almanac February 10, 2015).

“The Mellon Foundation grant further strengthens Penn’s leadership in the digital humanities revolution,” said Penn Arts & Sciences Dean Steven Fluharty, who also noted that the digital humanities initiative is a key component of the School’s new strategic plan (Almanac January 20, 2015). “With the digital humanities we will not only produce new knowledge but new ways of knowing, and new ways to show and share outcomes and results.”

The Penn Electric Racing team in Nebraska this summer: (back row, left to right) Jeremy Wright, Eli Gottlieb, Jay Fleischer, Tommy Sutton, David (Xiaohan) Chen, Manfred Reiche, Prith Gowda, Jason Chen and Courtney Kobata; (front row, left to right) Foster Collins, Dan Shanks, Adam Farabaugh (seated in car), Andrew Remec, Forrest Milburn and Parth Patel. All the students are in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics (MEAM), except Parth Patel, who is in electrical and systems engineering (ESE). An additional 20 members of the team did not travel to Nebraska, but contributed to the design and construction of the car.

 

Penn Electric Racing has taken home top honors at an international competition. The automotive engineering society SAE International hosts an annual series of racing events designed to spur creativity, innovation and problem solving in the next generation of engineering students. Its Formula SAE competition pits custom-built, high-performance racecars against one another. This year, over the weekend of June 17, it brought in more than 100 teams, hailing from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India and Japan.

Gas-powered racers made up a majority of the field, but Penn’s team set out to show that an electric car could hold its own against them. The more than 30 student members are united by their desire to push the envelope of what an electric car can do, not only in terms of its environmental bona fides but the qualities that make driving fun.

A high-speed test track is the perfect venue for such a synthesis. Even getting on the track is an accomplishment. Most of the 20 electric racing teams that came to the Lincoln, Nebraska event, including peer automotive engineering powerhouses MIT and Carnegie Mellon, were disqualified during the event’s exacting technical inspections.

Penn’s car last year, REV0, met with that fate. Drawing on the lessons learned there, the team put a year’s worth of fine-tuning into its successor, REV1. Beyond design upgrades in the shop, the team was able to do more rigorous field-testing of their vehicle this year. The opening of Pennovation Works (Almanac March 3, 2015) allowed for extra practice space.  

Their hard work paid off. REV1 took first place among electrics overall, winning seven of the eight categories. These included overall design, cornering, endurance and time-trials on a full racetrack. The acceleration test was one of the team’s strongest suits; beyond taking first among electrics, REV1 would have beaten all but three of the gas-powered cars. 

“We had our fingers crossed, but we really didn’t need to. The car worked flawlessly,” said Andy Jackson, the team’s faculty advisor, at a ceremony marking the team’s return to campus.

Dr. Jackson, a professor of practice in the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s department of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics (MEAM), stressed that his role on the team was merely an administrative one and that the students did all of the work on the car themselves.

Not only are they involved in all aspects of its design, fabrication and testing, but senior team members are also responsible for recruiting and training their successors.

The team is looking to raise additional funds for the 2015-2016 year. They have put together a budget with the goal of being the top-performing race car, gasoline or electric, in FSAE Lincoln in June 2016. They would like to identify a team sponsor and major donor, such as GM, and are working on this.

“This is an incredible learning experience for the students,” Dr. Jackson said. “Next year, we expect to be not only the clear winner among electric cars but to beat most of the gasoline cars, too.”

Margrit Maggio (right), director of operative dentistry and advanced simulation, works with a student on one of the simulation units that will outfit the Measey Haptic Technology Center.Penn Dental Medicine has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the Benjamin & Mary Siddons Measey Foundation of Media, Pennsylvania, in support of a state-of-the-art advanced dental simulation laboratory. The new facility, to be named the Measey Haptic Technology Center at Penn Dental Medicine, will feature Simodont simulation units that use haptic technology to mimic the feel of tooth preparation, delivering a highly realistic virtual reality simulation of dental procedures.

“The Board is proud to be a part of creating this unique educational resource at Penn Dental Medicine,” says Measey Foundation Board Chair, Clyde F. Barker.

Penn Dental Medicine has been a leader in advanced simulation and is the first dental school in North and South America to integrate the Simodont technology into its curriculum. The School acquired 12 Simodont units in the spring of 2014, and starting this academic year, all first-year students were immersed in the technology to build proficiency in handpiece use, depth perception and fine motor movement. The Measey Haptic Technology Center will enable the School to continue to build its resources in this area.

“This advanced simulation lab is such a vital part of ensuring our students are well prepared and confident as clinicians,” said Denis Kinane, Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean. “Through this Center, the Measey Foundation will truly have a far-reaching impact on students and patients,” added Dr. Kinane.

The new Center, projected to be completed next year, will be situated in the lower concourse of the School’s Thomas W. Evans Building and will serve as one of the focal points of the $34 million Evans Building Centennial Renaissance project, a major renovation of the building set to begin this fall.

The Benjamin & Mary Siddons Measey Foundation is named for the parents of William Maul Measey, an 1898 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Margrit Maggio (right), director of operative dentistry and advanced simulation, works with a student on one of the simulation units that will outfit the Measey Haptic Technology Center.

The Penn Center for Innovation invites the Penn community to participate in the third annual mobile app challenge, AppItUP. Submissions will be accepted from September 14 to October 12.

Submit ideas and spread the word.

AppItUP collects app ideas from Penn students, staff and faculty with the goal of turning the best ideas into products. They partner with investors, software developers and business leaders to make it happen.

To learn more about AppItUP, read the How it Works and FAQ sections at www.appitupchallenge.com

Last year the Center for Innovation collected 427 ideas from 11 schools on campus and turned five winning ideas into companies.

Besides the chance to have your idea made into a working prototype by their Development Partners free of charge, this year’s challenge brings other great prizes as well. Ben Franklin Technology Partners, one of the nation’s most successful technology-based economic development programs, is going to offer an investment of $50,000 to two finalists of its choice.
 

The history of the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum has been chronicled in written stories over the years, but now an audio history series offers an insider’s view from people with strong ties to the organization from the early days to the present.

Started in 2014, the Arboretum Voices project offers information about the 128-year-old estate’s transition into the Arboretum it is today.

“Those stories, they’re not written down anywhere,” says Bob Gutowski, the Arboretum’s director of public programs. “We decided that, if we waited, we would lose a generation of wisdom and experience whose stories may not have been told. Let’s get these before we lose the opportunity.”

On the oral-history webpage, Phoebe Driscoll, a descendant of John and Lydia Morris, shares her thoughts and remembrances of her ancestors.

“It makes me feel good to understand and see in concrete form, their great legacy, which means so much to so many people,” says Ms. Driscoll, who grew up in Baltimore and moved to Philadelphia in the 1960s.

In the interview, Ms. Driscoll recounts her mother’s memories of visits to the Morris’ summer home, originally known as Compton. Ms. Driscoll says her mother grew up across the street and spent time at Compton, where the pet peacocks “scared her to death” because they were “pretty aggressive and very noisy.”

For John Shober, an emeritus member of the Arboretum’s advisory board, the Arboretum became his haven for recovery from post-traumatic stress in 1957 after he served in the Army. At a time when the arboretum wasn’t as well maintained as it is today, Mr. Shober would spend hours taking in the scenery on the grounds.

“I was going to law school at night, and I would take books over there and study,” says Mr. Shober. “It was a wasteland, but it was oddly comforting to me. It’s hard to explain, but this place had an atmosphere about it.”

Mr. Shober would take his children to explore the arboretum, and then years later his grandchildren. Now, he brings his great-grandchildren.

Mr. Shober marvels about the Arboretum’s “handkerchief tree,” also known as Davidia involucrata or dove tree.

“The leaves look like giant handkerchiefs,” says Mr. Shober. “When they start coming down, you see these handkerchiefs coming down all over the ground.”

“These stories carry knowledge beyond the sum of the words,” says Mr. Gutowski.  “There’s a lot about transmitting values and what’s important about a place, what’s important about an experience.”

To hear more Arboretum Voices, visit: http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/arboretum/about_arboretum_voices.shtml

Founded in 1887, the property on Northwestern Avenue in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia was the private estate of siblings John and Lydia Morris, horticulturists and civic leaders.

The Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania is located at 100 East Northwestern Avenue in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. The 92-acre horticulture display garden features a spectacular collection of mature trees in a beautiful and colorful landscape. The Arboretum includes numerous picturesque spots such as a formal rose garden, historic water features, a swan pond and the only remaining freestanding fernery in North America. The Arboretum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also the official arboretum of Pennsylvania.

To ensure that future generations would have access to the site where they had established their summer home and a garden with botanical treasures, John and Lydia willed these 166 acres to establish a public Arboretum. After their deaths, the University was entrusted in 1932 with the administration of the estate and transforming it into a public arboretum and educational center.

In 1981, art patrons Philip and Muriel Berman commissioned an American sculptor Michael B. Price to create posthumous portraits of the Arboretum’s founders. Mr. Price first researched historical photos to determine the Morris’s appearances. Next he created their likenesses in full-size clay figures (below). To create these Everdur silicon bronze statues, he used the classic lost-wax process of metal casting.

John Morris and his sister, Lydia Morris, are immortalized in the life-size sculptures that since 1981 have stood overlooking the Arboretum’s Azalea Meadow, where their private summer estate was located for many years.

Open weekdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (April-October). For more information, visit www.morrisarboretum.org

Anthony (Tony) Joseph Atkin, adjunct associate professor in PennDesign’s graduate architecture department for more than 30 years, died on May 21 in Santa Fe, New Mexico after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 64 years old.

Mr. Atkin was a distinguished architect and teacher whose firm, Atkin Olshin Schade Architects, has offices in Philadelphia and Santa Fe. He was the coordinator and course leader for Penn’s Japan and China summer courses. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, then received his bachelor of arts in anthropology from the University of Utah and his master of architecture from Penn in 1975.

His firm has been honored with numerous awards for its design and preservation efforts, including awards from Progressive Architecture, Architecture Magazine, the AIA, the American Planning Association and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The firm’s most significant projects include buildings at the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, the Rhode Island School of Design and numerous houses of worship across the country. After the opening of  the Santa Fe office, there was a focus on work serving American Indian populations, including multiple projects at the Pueblos of Ohkay Owingeh and Santo Domingo. He authored and edited three books, including Structure and Meaning in Human Settlements.

At Penn, his firm was responsible for planning and design projects that have deeply enriched the campus and its surroundings, including the University Campus Development Plan  (with Laurie Olin; Almanac February 27, 2001), the Mainwaring Wing of the University Museum (Almanac April 30, 2002), the addition to the Jaffe History of Art Building (Almanac October 18, 1994) and the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School (Almanac October 15, 2002). The Penn Alexander School developed out of a collaborative studio jointly taught by Mr. Atkin and Mr. Olin for architectural and landscape architecture students at PennDesign.

Mr. Atkin is survived by five sisters, Linda Lytle, Ilona (Fenton) Terry, Barbara Atkin, Alice (Virgil) Steel and Ester (Lester) West, and many nieces and nephews.

He wished memorial gifts to be made to the Atkin Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design: pdalumni@design.upenn.edu or (215) 746-3167.

A memorial will be held on October 25 at 3 p.m. in the Stoner Courtyard at the University of Pennsylvania Museum; rain location is the Museum’s Widener Lecture Room.

In last week’s issue, the date and location given for the Senate’s September meeting were incorrect. The first Senate Executive Committee (SEC) meeting of the fall semester will be held on Wednesday, September 30 at 3 p.m. at the University Club. Also, the location of the May meeting is tentatively scheduled to be in the Singh Center. Generally, SEC meetings are held in 205 College Hall, unless otherwise noted in Almanac.

Notes:

Graduate and professional programs follow their own calendars with different registration/drop deadlines, which are typically available on the website of the school or program.

The College of Liberal and Professional Studies may have different registration/drop deadlines. Please visit the LPS website, www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/  for more information.

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the first two days of Passover and Good Friday are religious holidays that affect large numbers of University community members and that fall during the academic year. To view the University’s policy regarding these and other holidays, please visit http://provost.upenn.edu/policies/pennbook/2013/02/13/policy-on-secular-and-religious-holidays

The University’s Three-Year Academic Calendar is subject to change. In the event that changes are made, the latest, most up-to-date version will be posted to Almanac’s website, www.upenn.edu/almanac To find out why these changes—“Thursday-Friday Class Schedule on Tuesday-Wednesday” and “First Day of Classes (Monday class schedule on Wednesday)”—have happened, please visit http://provost.upenn.edu/education/calendar

Welcome to Endless Discovery

Members of the Class of 2019 and transfers: Welcome!

Tomorrow, you face your first day of classes. You’re ready, you’re excited and you’re committed to achieving great things. Tonight’s a perfect chance to look and see just how far you’ve traveled as a class to be here—from across the country and around the world:

From California to Illinois to Massachusetts;

From Texas to Florida to New York;

And, of course, from the great state of Pennsylvania.

You come from Canada and from Korea, from India and the United Kingdom and from 74 countries far and near.

You come from many cultures and many different walks of life.

No matter where you come from, I want you to know this: We are thrilled you’re here! Today you join centuries of Penn explorers, engineers and entrepreneurs, playwrights, professors, physicists and physicians, nation builders, nurses, novelists and Nobel Laureates. You join the likes of Benjamin Franklin, W.E.B. DuBois and six signers of the U.S. Constitution.

And you share something very special with all these Penn people—past, present and future. You share in the pursuit of discovery.

The pursuit of discovery is the very essence of the Penn experience. It will require you to recognize how much you don’t know but are perfectly positioned to discover—about your major, about your world, about yourself. You are on a journey of discovery to grasp unexpected insights and bring new understanding to light.

Your journey of discovery officially begins this evening as we formally welcome you to your new home with this tradition called Convocation. Convocation—from the Latin convocāre. The root, vocāre, means “to call.” Together with the prefix, con, the Latin term for this event very roughly translates “to get up the nerve to call that person I don’t know who is sitting near me.”

So that is precisely what you are about to do! But not with your cell phones.

I want everyone to stand up. Yes, go ahead and stretch your legs.

Good. Discovery begins now. I want you to look around and greet somebody near you whom you haven’t met before—someone you didn’t come here with, someone you’ve possibly never seen before.

Learn their name, shake hands, ask where they’re from and of course, exchange a big smile. Come on now, no exceptions—even me!

OK, great! Please have a seat. I see a lot of smiles, and that’s good.

I will hazard a guess that no one here tonight introduced themselves by the name of Copernicus. Yet each of you just engaged in a small act of discovery. And it went well, notwithstanding the fact that, if you’re like most of us, you first had to overcome something.

You had to overcome the discomfort of leaving behind the familiar and stepping out into undiscovered territory. As the map makers of old labeled it, you paid a visit to terra incognita—the unknown land. And that can be unnerving.

It’s frightening to put ourselves in a position where we don’t know what happens next. When we consider out-of-the-blue introducing ourselves to a total stranger, our minds so often play tricks on us. We construct imagined scenarios of being rejected or scorned or even humiliated.

In exactly the same way, we human beings tend to create imagined barriers when introduced to strange new ideas. New ideas upend the status quo and force us out of our comfort zones. As a result, new ideas are too often met with dismissal and disdain.

The single greatest impediment to discovery is our natural inclination to believe we know all there is to know about something. So often, the obstacle to discovery is the illusion of knowledge.

A case in point: If you saw the movie Jurassic World this summer, as I did, then you know what the great predatory dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex looks like. You know they were smooth-skinned reptiles with big teeth and sharp claws, powerful legs and a swinging tail. They are creatures of nightmares. You know that when they look at you, all they see is lunch.

But in the past couple of decades new ideas have emerged. There’s a theory that these dinosaurs were the ancestors of modern birds and were in some important ways bird-like.

With the work of leading paleontologists like Penn’s own Professor Peter Dodson, evidence has grown, and today, this theory is widely credited.

Recently, we also have made some incredible fossil discoveries, especially in the northwestern region of China. There is now a growing body of scientific evidence that this family of dinosaurs were quite likely covered in feathers.

So here is an experiment in getting past what we think we already know: I want you to imagine T. Rex covered in feathers, bright red and blue plumage. It’s now a P. Rex: Pennosaurus Rex.

Not quite so frightening, is it? You are seeing it in a different way. You are seeing something new. Congratulations—you are on the road to discovery.

When we make that leap and add the feathers it frees us to imagine the T. Rex in new ways. We can break away from what we thought we knew. We can leave behind the Hollywood images of the great gray-green lizard roaring through the Jurassic jungle. We’re ready to make true discoveries.

We become open to the very real possibility that there is more—more to learn, more to know, more to discover. We open ourselves to a true education of the highest order—the Penn order.

There will never be a better time in your lives or a better place than Penn to explore new ideas in this unsettling yet uplifting way.

Here, you will be surrounded by people who have dedicated their lives to the possibility of more—to the challenging and pathbreaking work of discovery.

You will ask hard questions and shake off what you think you know to discover truths about yourself and the wider world that you could not have imagined before convocating at Penn.

Your Penn experience will be challenging. It will be exhilarating. In turn, you will be inspired, confused, uneasy and delighted. That is exactly why you are here. You are on the road to terra incognita. Down this path lies discovery.

But you don’t tread this path alone.

Just as every one of us must fight the belief that we know everything, so too do we have to ask for help when we need it.

Here at Penn, you are surrounded by a community of friends, mentors, professionals and excellent services, all committed to your success and wellbeing. Challenges are inevitable. Setbacks will occur.

But you’re not alone in navigating them. We are right here with you and ready to help. Never ever hesitate to ask for help. That’s what we are here for. Asking for help—far from signaling weakness or failure—is a most positive sign that you appreciate something very profound: no one, and that includes you and me, ever makes it through college, let alone life, on our own. The sooner we learn that lesson, the stronger and more successful we are likely to be.

And so, from the small discoveries you’ve made today, to the amazing revelations you’ll enjoy during your years at Penn, you are in for a time that will transform your life.

Welcome to endless discovery.

This is your time. Penn is your place.

Let us begin.

Embrace the Unfamiliar, Vincent Price 

As Provost—the University’s Chief Academic Officer—I have the great pleasure of welcoming you to Penn.

Though we probably haven’t met, my face may be familiar. I recorded a video for New Student Orientation that you may have seen. Maybe you watched on your phone…which is fine. I’m much taller in person.

This evening, what I’d like to talk about is not the familiar, but the unfamiliar; not what you know, but what you don’t know; not what’s comfortable, but what makes you uncomfortable.

Unfamiliar. Unknowing. Uncomfortable. Intimidating words, perhaps. They shouldn’t be. They simply describe what it’s like to be a stranger.  Not The Stranger of Albert Camus. Just a person in a new place. A person like you, today.

My hope for each of you—and my message to all of you this evening—is that over the next four years at Penn, you embrace the unfamiliar.

What does that mean? It means enjoying being the person who doesn’t have all the answers. (That may be a little difficult for some of you.)  It means joining a group where everyone may not look like you, or talk like you or sing as poorly as you think you do. It means taking a class you thought was Japanese but is actually Organic Chemistry. It means reaching out, beyond your comfort zone.

Consider what a thoughtful stranger does upon arriving in a new place.  You look up, and out, seeing things the rest of us don’t. You take in others’ opinions before forming your own. You respect others to earn their respect. You value your freedom and independence, yet seek out new connections. After all, who wants to be a stranger forever?

At Penn, you will find much to love. You will also encounter ideas you might not. They may seem outlandish, offensive or just plain wrong.  You may be confused at some point. Embrace that confusion. A thoughtful stranger welcomes uncomfortable situations and disagreeable opinions. It is through this very discomfort that we learn the true value of intellectual freedom: Not just the ability but the absolute necessity to challenge our assumptions of what we know.

Penn as an institution is centuries old. But this community is not hemmed in by time or place—by this street, or that degree program. It is an ever-evolving mixture of knowledge, people, experiences and worldviews. At some point, everyone arrives as a stranger here.

What makes friends of strangers—what makes this campus a community—is our embrace of those differences. We celebrate them. We want all voices to be heard. This is a critical aspect of the Penn education.

Now, I’d venture to guess that most of you think you’re here to receive that education. Is that right? Can I have a show of hands? It’s true. That is part of why you’re here.  But there is another part. You’re here not just to get something, but also to give—to contribute to our community. Each of you is a distinct piece of the Penn puzzle: your knowledge and ideas, your performances, your groups and games…even your disagreements and demonstrations. You make Penn what it is…and what it will be.

This is a new role for you. Embrace it. Make your voice heard, but with a caution. Do not drown out the voices of others. They, too, are part of this community—your community.

In that orientation video, I noted that, each year at Convocation, I offer one piece of advice that is always the same. It has nothing to do with classes or majors or roommates. It is simply this: Make time to recharge…and I don’t mean your cell phone. Life in college is wonderfully liberating.  With that freedom comes a tendency to try to do everything, all the time.  You can do a lot, but you can’t do it all. You will function best here—in all respects—if you’re energized but not exhausted. Get some sleep.

Work at bringing balance to your life. Test your balance, and be ready to feel a little wobbly. But you are not performing without a net. I’ve encouraged you to embrace the unfamiliar; but too much confusion can be bewildering…even a little scary. If at any time you feel estranged—disconnected, depressed, or, to paraphrase Camus, like a person with no place in this community—if you feel you are really losing your balance, please reach out to a professor, a staff member, the Chaplain’s Office or a friend. We all need help from time to time. We are truly all in this together.

One closing thought. A moment ago, I referred to each of you as pieces of the Penn puzzle. Like any good puzzle, this Penn puzzle will begin to take shape over time. Through trial and no little error, scattered pieces will start to fit. Connections will form; confusion will fade. And when the Penn picture comes into focus, you will sit back and settle in. You won’t feel like a stranger. You’ll feel like family. The unfamiliarity will fade, and you’ll begin to lose that sense of wonder.

Please, try very hard not to lose it all. Hold on to the stranger in you. Remain curious, questioning, ready to be confounded. Because one of life’s great joys is seeing things again…for the very first time.

Members of the Class of 2019—Welcome to Penn.

Morris Arboretum is calling all scarecrows for its annual Scarecrow Design Contest. This year participants may create a scarecrow for the theme: Famous Art & Artists. Those who sign up by Thursday, September 24 ensure their place in the contest. The entry fee is $30, with a $5 discount for those who register by Friday, September 11. Scarecrow frames, straw, burlap and twine are all provided. Details and downloadable contest entry forms are available online at www.bit.ly/MAcrows

These scarecrows—more than 30—will be on display along Scarecrow Walk at the Oak Allée for four weeks, from Saturday, October 3 through Sunday October 25, one week longer this year. Now in its eighth year and more popular than ever, Scarecrow Walk is a must see for the fall season. Visitors of all ages will vote for their favorite scarecrow to determine which will be the winners. Prizes will be awarded to the top five winning Scarecrow Designers.

• 1st Prize    $125 Cash

• 2nd Prize    $75 Gift Certificate for The Shop at Morris Arboretum

• 3rd Prize    $50 Gift Certificate for The Shop at Morris Arboretum

• 4th Prize    $35 Gift Certificate toward one Continuing Education Class

• 5th Prize    $25 Gift Certificate toward one Continuing Education Class

A permanent nationally award winning exhibit, Out on a Limb –a Tree Adventure adds to Morris Arboretum’s allure by transporting visitors 50 feet up into the treetops on a canopy walk that requires no climbing. Open weekdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (April-October). For more information, visit www.morrisarboretum.org.

Plan an outing to Morris Arboretum on National Grandparents Day, Sunday, September 13, and kids who bring a grandparent receive $3 off admission, making youth admission $5. Just as grandparents are the founding treasures of their family, the buildings, trees and sculpture highlighted on the “Founding Treasures” map (available at the Visitor’s Center) are the Arboretum’s iconic riches. Use this map to explore the garden with your loved ones.

Knowledgeable guides will describe Morris Arboretum’s smaller specimen trees in the garden’s popular tour, Small Trees for Small Spaces. At 11 a.m. on Saturdays, September 12 & 26 and October 10 & 24, Arboretum guides will point out small trees that make a big impact. Varying in height from 15 to 30 feet, these trees have many special features, for instance, spectacular bark, interesting forms and great flower and leaf color. This tour includes trees such as paperbark maple, known for its cinnamon-colored bark that peels into large, thin curls that remain on the tree, revealing rich reddish-brown tones underneath.

These small trees are now getting a much deserved moment in the spotlight.

(Above) Ludwig Bemelmans, detail of cover mock-up for Madeline (ca. 1939), Jean Johnson Kislak Collection, ©Ludwig Bemelmans, LLC. Eight Madeline books are included in the current exhibition now at the Library.

Covered with Vines: The Many Talents of Ludwig Bemelmans is on exhibit now through December 21 at the Goldstein Family Gallery, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, sixth floor.

Although she was the smallest of the little girls who lived under the care of Miss Clavel in that Parisian house, Madeline has grown up, in the years since her birth in 1939, to overshadow everything else her creator, Ludwig Bemelmans, accomplished during his long, varied and highly productive career. Based on both the collection formed by Jean Kislak, a Madeline aficionado, and Penn’s own Bemelmans collections, this exhibition displays printed books, manuscripts and art to recover a Bemelmans now largely forgotten, while also celebrating Madeline.

In three parts devoted to Bemelmans as writer, Bemelmans as artist and Bemelmans as creator of Madeline, we consider Ludwig Bemelmans’s multiple careers. Restaurateur and hotelier, soldier, memoirist, short story writer, novelist, travel writer, script writer, cartoonist, illustrator, commercial artist, painter—all of Bemelmans’s other personal and artistic endeavors, including even his other children’s books, have disappeared beneath the towering success of Madeline. All deserve a second look. Neither Madeline as character nor Madeline as book came out of nothing. Penn’s exhibition hopes to remove some of the vines that prevent a clearer view of the multi-talented artist who was her source.

The exhibition contains selections of Bemelmans’ writings and illustrations for both adults and children. Included in the display are books (eight are Madeline), letters, manuscripts and original artwork.

Exhibition Remarks and Reception will take place on Wednesday, October 14 at 5 p.m.

Homecoming Weekend events will take place on Saturday, November 7 and will include readings of Madeline books and the Homecoming Gallery Hop.

For more information on these events and to register for them, visit http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/bemelmans.html

Faculty and staff of the University and the Health System are invited to the 2015 Housing Fair on Thursday, September 10 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in Bodek Lounge in Houston Hall. Hosted by Penn Home Ownership Services (PHOS), the Fair is a perennial favorite on campus, bringing valuable resources from the housing community together at one convenient location. Representatives from PHOS and its lending partners will address questions about the Forgivable Loan and the Closing Cost Reduction Programs, which are available to full time employees of the University and the Health System. Other exhibitors that support the real estate and housing industry will also be in attendance.

Admission to the event is free. Please visit the 2015 Housing Fair website at www.upenn.edu/homeownership or call (215) 898-7422 for more information.

Faculty and staff of the University and the Health System are invited to the 2015 Housing Fair on Thursday, September 10 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in Bodek Lounge in Houston Hall. Hosted by Penn Home Ownership Services (PHOS), the Fair is a perennial favorite on campus, bringing valuable resources from the housing community together at one convenient location. Representatives from PHOS and its lending partners will address questions about the Forgivable Loan and the Closing Cost Reduction Programs, which are available to full time employees of the University and the Health System. Other exhibitors that support the real estate and housing industry will also be in attendance.

Admission to the event is free. Please visit the 2015 Housing Fair website at www.upenn.edu/homeownership or call (215) 898-7422 for more information.

The University of Pennsylvania Police Department Community Crime Report

About the Crime Report: Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for August 17-23, 2015. Prior weeks’ reports are also online. —Eds.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department between the dates of August 17-23, 2015. The University Police actively patrol from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and from the Schuylkill River to 43rd Street in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police. In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call the Division of Public Safety at (215) 898-4482.

08/18/15      3:43 PM         3900 Baltimore Ave  Fraud  Money sent for hotel room that did not exist

08/18/15      4:37 PM         3680 Walnut St         Assault                       Complainant reported male twisted her arm

08/18/15      6:17 PM         3737 Market St         Harassment               Unwanted phone calls and text messages received

08/18/15      6:50 PM         4048 Spruce St         Theft                          Seat and brake assembly taken from bike

08/19/15      12:55 PM       3900 Baltimore Ave  Traffic                         Male wanted on warrant/Arrest

08/19/15      1:57 PM         3400 Spruce St         Theft                          Cell phone taken by unknown female

08/20/15      9:47 AM         3400 Spruce St         Theft                          iPhone taken

08/20/15      3:22 PM         4000 Chestnut St      Theft                          Secured bike taken

08/21/15      8:37 AM         4001 Walnut St         Disorderly Conduct   Male causing disturbance and arguing with security/Arrest

08/21/15      12:52 PM       3333 Walnut St          Fraud                        Money removed from account without authorization

08/21/15      3:36 PM         3535 Market St          Fraud                        Unknown person attempted to get money from complainant

08/21/15      3:49 PM         3400 Market St          Robbery                   Male attempted to taken property

08/21/15      11:40 PM       4036 Spruce St          Liquor Law               Male cited for underaged drinking

08/22/15      12:04 AM       3400 Spruce St          DUI                           Intoxicated driver arrested

08/22/15      1:48 AM         3000 Market St          Other Offense           Male wanted on warrant/Arrest

08/22/15      1:52 AM         200 S 37th St            Other Offense            Male issued citation for public urination

08/22/15      12:51 PM       1 S 40th St                Assault                       Male slapped female/Arrest

08/22/15      5:20 PM         51 N 39th St              Narcotic                     Female in possession of narcotics/Arrest

08/23/15      12:10 AM       249 41st St                Disorderly Conduct   Male cited for disorderly conduct

18th District Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 5 incidents with 2 arrests (2 aggravated assaults, 2 robberies and 1 assault) were reported between August 17-23, 2015 by the 18th District covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

08/17/15     8:01 AM    4000 Pine St                 Robbery/Arrest

08/17/15    6:47 PM    1 S 30th St                     Aggravated Assault/Arrest

08/18/15    4:37 PM    3680 Walnut St               Assault

08/19/15    5:44 PM    4802 Spruce St              Aggravated Assault

08/21/15    4:09 PM    N 34th St & Market St    Robbery